New Cancer Research Database to Utilise Artificial Intelligence

Amy Taylor November 20, 2013

As a way to cut the rising incidence of cancer, British researchers have designed a new database containing 1.7 billion experimental results that uses artificial intelligence like that used in weather forecasts, to discover cancer treatments of the future.

Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, have recently launched the CanSAR database, which is more than double the size of a previous version, brought about by advances in DNA sequencing and other technologies. This free resource allows researchers worldwide to make use of vast quantities of data, including data from patients, clinical trials and genetic, biochemical and pharmacological research. Although the prototype of CanSAR is small scale, it has attracted 6,000 unique users in more than 70 countries around the world and earlier this year, it was used to identify 46 cancer proteins that can be treated using drug therapies, something that has been previously overlooked by doctors in the past.

The researchers hope that the new database will bring dramatic advances in drug discovery by giving health experts access to, and the ability to interact with, unprecedented amounts of multidisciplinary data in seconds.

CanSAR contains more than 8 million experimentally derived measurements, nearly one million biologically active chemical compounds and data from over a thousand cancer cell lines. Plus, it contains drug target information from the human genome and model organisms. With the new database, data that would take years to be completed will now take only a few minutes.

"CanSAR uses artificial intelligence, like that used in weather forecasts, to predict which potential drugs are likely to work in which circumstances. The database is capable of extraordinarily complex virtual experiments drawing on information from patients, genetics, chemistry and other laboratory research. It can spot opportunities for future cancer treatments that no human eye could be expected to see." says Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani, Team Leader in Computational Biology and Chemogenomics at The Institute of Cancer Research.

Extraordinary time for cancer research

Professor Paul Workman, Deputy Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research said this “is an extraordinary time for cancer research, as advances in scientific techniques open up new possibilities and generate unprecedented amounts of data.” “Our aim is to make this wealth of information, coming from both the clinic and from the laboratory, freely available in a very user-friendly form to as many people as possible.”

Workman pointed out that the new database is easy to use. For instance, a chemist and a clinician can both access the data without the need to understand each other’s jargon.

Nell Barrie of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, believes that CanSAR will lead to progress and make breakthroughs sooner.

Source of this article:

World’s largest disease database will use artificial intelligence to find new cancer treatments